Earlier this month, I participated in a UCR writer’s workshop/conference.  I shared thirty pages of my Mexicali writing with other MFA grads.  They diced it, they sliced, and they handed it back to me with their critiques.  I’m so happy I went.  I often tell my students I write best with the anticipation of someone reading my stuff.  It stresses me out, but it gives me focus.  I don’t think I can do it any other way. “No, no, no,”  many of my students say when I announce I  will publish their work in my school magazine.   I tell them not to worry.  The hardest part is all behind you once you’ve pressed “submit.”

Below I share my most recent blog post for my reading of Sylvia by Leonard Michaels.  I plan for my students to write mental illness research papers in the spring.  We’ll be reading a lot of sad, messy, uncomfortable material.  I hope to raise the level of empathy in my students’ writing.  In opening our eyes to the suffering of other people, we can write to a more compassionate understanding of the world around us.